Constantinople Again

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

That’s it. In a nutshell, that is why I’ve started this blog. Because it’s either decry and expose the lunacy that has descended upon this country or crawl up into a fetal position in a drug-induced oblivion in a dark corner of my garage. There is no middle ground. Not anymore.

When speaking plainly and logically about the Ft. Hood terrorist attack that killed 13 American soldiers in cold blood brands me as an Islamophobe, or xenophobe, or Muslim-hating racist, or any one of a number of epithets politically correct dhimmis hurl indiscriminately to brand all dissenters and preclude any logical debate, then free speech in this country is dead. Especially in light of the fact that they can do it with the near unanimous complicity of the mainstream media – the once vaunted and now sadly farcical ‘Fourth Estate’.

“Let’s be careful not to jump to conclusions”, our President said in the wake of the terrorist attack. Yup, the same man who, in the absence of any evidence at all accused the Cambridge police department of ‘acting stupidly’ when they arrested his close friend, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. No, no, we mustn’t be too hasty now.

Just because Nidal Hasan pulled two handguns in the midst of a crowd and yelled ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (God is Great) before murdering 13 and wounding 38 ‘kuffars’, we should still give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean after all, he was the victim of ‘teasing’ after the 9/11 attacks. Imagine that, a member of the US Army that claimed America was waging ‘war against Islam’ was actually criticized for that view?

I heard he even had a religious bumper sticker ripped off his car on base. Victimized again. No wonder he snapped. Ironically, the bumper sticker read ‘Allah is Love’. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Yet no one, save for few brave bloggers, have the nerve to buck the PC paradigm and proclaim this man a terrorist. America has lost its will and lost its way. Somewhere between the iconic newsreels of the 1940s that proudly and unapologetically chronicled our victories against the evil axis powers and the mealy-mouthed, near apologetic tones of the news coverage of the despicable jihad-murders at Ft. Hood, America has lost the certitude of how truly great a nation it is. Instead, it is placing its head on the altar of Political Correctness and Multi-Culturalism for our enemies to eagerly lop of with a gleaming scimitar.

For Nidal Hasan, the government reserves the benefit of the doubt.

For me, there are no such reservations. You see, I own a gun (or two..). I’m opposed to illegal imigration. I believe in strict adherence to the US Constitution. I have a yellow Don’t Tread On Me Gadsden flag on the pole in my front yard just below Old Glory and a few DTOM stickers on my SUV next to my Ron Paul for President stickers. This makes me a ‘Rightwing Extremist’. Says who? Says none other than The US Department of Homeland Security in their April of 2007 report entitled: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. (Linked here at FAS.org)

The report even cautions against veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq who might be disaffected and thereby susceptible to recruitment by nefarious rightwing extremist groups. I’ll leave you to attempt to fathom the suicidal logic employed by a government that would demonize returning vets as potential extremists while steering clear of even considering the thought of labeling Nidal Hasan an extremist.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Poor Ahmed Bedier. He's gotta have the most difficult job in the world. What does he do, you ask? He's the director of the Central Florida office of CAIR - the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the sophisticated and media savvy propaganda wing of the Islamist ummah, and an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial currently going on in Texas. Rather than appearing on television lamenting America's 'religious profiling' and/or 'Islamophobia', he has had to spend an inordinate amount of time defending the suspicious activities of some fine fellow practitioners of the Religion of Peace from the nearby University of South Florida.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -First, there was Sami al-Arian, the Computer Science Professor cum jihad fund raiser who was arrested in February of 2003 and charged with supporting, through fund-raising front groups, a terrorist organization. Namely - the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Despite some charges being dismissed during his trial in June of 2005, Mr. Arian eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to raise money for the PIJ and conceal the identities of its members. Mr Bedier was in fine form on the day Judge James Moody Jr., who called the defendant a 'liar and master manipulator' and accused al-Arian of [allowing his children to] attend the finest universities in this country while you raise money to blow up the children of others.', imposed the maximum possible sentence. Bedier, in as sincere a bout of indignation as he could muster for the TV cameras, said the Judge's behavior was 'shocking'. He also claimed that "he looked angry as he was delivering that, even his face was turning somewhat red."

Imagine that? The nerve of an American judge to express indignation about a man who uses the liberty and freedom afforded him by his presence in these United States of America to raise money for suicide bombers of the PIJ. Didn't this Moody guy get the latest CAIR press release? Killing innocent children, even Zionist children, is counter to the teachings of Islam. No Muslim could ever do such a thing!

Then, there was the case, in May of 2006, of the two Saudi men, Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, also students of USF (the English Language Institute), who decided to board a yellow school bus headed for Wharton High School at one of its regular stops. they were arrested by police upon their arrival at the school.

Never mind that they gave police conflicting stories about why they did this.Never mind that they first told police they were from Morocco.Never mind that they seemed 'cagey and evasive' to police who questioned them after their arrest.Never mind that one of them was wearing an overcoat in Florida in May!

Even though the bus-boarding had all the earmarks of a 'dry run' for a bus hijacking, Mr. Bedier was once again dispatched by CAIR to ease all our fears. "Obviously, if they had recently arrived here and they were from Saudi Arabia, they may not be familiar with American rules and laws," he offered sincerely. "They might have thought it was some kind of public transportation."

Sure. Makes sense. And the guy with the long, black overcoat had obviously just watched The Matrix and believed himself to be Neo.

No, nothing to see here. Move along. Young Muslim men would never harm young children. It goes agains the teachings of the Qu'ran. Except, that is, for that episode in Beslan, Russia in 2004, when Muslim gunmen took over a school of 1200, killing over 300 people, including 184 children.

Finally, there is the story of yet 2 more USF students, Ahmed Abdel Latif Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21. The former, a graduate engineering student and teaching assistant and the latter, a civil engineering student. Both young, Muslim men were arrested in early August as they sped down an isolated road in Goose Creek, S.C. which, just coincidentally, led to the naval station that housed a brig containing several 'enemy combatants' from Iraq and Afghanistan.

When pulled over by police, several suspicious items were found in their car. Among them:A box of bullets under the front seat.A full 5-gallon can of gasoline.An electric drill.23 ft. of safety fuse for explosivesAn undisclosed amount of pre-mixed, low-grade explosive.A video showing how convert a remote control toy car into a bomb detonator.3 Pipe bombs filled with an explosive mixture.A laptop containing files on how to make and use TNT and other high explosives.

Mohamed had been arrested previously in Egypt on terrorism charges related to his production of that same video found in the trunk. He later told police that the tape was intended to be instructional for someone 'who wants to be a martyr for another battle', and to 'assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries.' In the video, he mentions the use of small, remote controlled boats as means of delivering and detonating a bomb. In the oddest of coincidences, the FBI later seized the identical toy boat in Megahed's apartment.

Once again, CAIR dutifully marches out Ahmed Bedier to 'clarify' the situation. This time, however and to his credit, he actually comes close to chastising Mohamed when he said that 'Muslims don't get a second chance when they dabble with things like this.' Of course the obvious, unanswered questions here is - Why should they? He added, ". Not only will this have consequences on him, but it will have consequences on most of the Muslims in this country." To which I add: As well it should.

My hope was, as I researched these cases, that the Feds were keeping a close eye on goings on at USF. I can only assume that they are. As for Mr. Bedier, he deserves a vacation or a raise. Or both. As he continues to have to remind us just how paranoid and Islamophobic we Americans are at a few innocent Imams who just wanted to fly to Phoenix or the 13 Syrians on Northwest Airlines Flight 327 who just happened to all have to go to the bathroom at the same time, et al.

I hope we've seen and heard the last of his and CAIR's obfuscations and rationalizations for criminal, or at the very least, highly questionable behavior by Muslims at USF and elsewhere. Somehow, though, I doubt it.10/29/07 UPDATE: Judge Steven D. Merryday denied bail for Youssef Megahed - declairing him a 'flight risk'. Of Mr. Megahed, the judge added, ""The evidence fails to establish or even suggest any innocent or wholesome explanation for the events that led to Megahed's arrest," Merryday wrote.

"Guns, explosives, fuses, canisters of gasoline, ammunition, welding equipment, GPS devices, all-night interstate drives to an unstated and indeterminate destination, stops to check gun prices and availability, and computers with a recent history of visits to sites that feature the advocates and the means of violence are not attributes that a disinterested but cautious observer associates with a safe and tranquil citizen of the community," the judge said.

"Rather, a person about whom these attributes are discovered is a person whose means, motive and degree of determination are unknown and unpredictable and who is highly suspicious and threatening."

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The 6 ethnic Albanian or former Yugoslavian Muslims were arrested today for allegedly conspiring to gun-down, with automatic weapons and explosives, as many soldiers as possible at Fort Dix, New Jersey. You've probably already heard that part of the story, but there's an interesting angle of the story you may not yet be familiar with. It seems our Albanian jihadists used paintball guns to practice the 'urban combat techniques' necessary to wage jihad on American streets (or military bases). Why is that interesting? Well, let me take a moment to refresh your memory. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Do the names Randall Todd Royer or Ibrahim al-Hamadi ring a bell? They were two of nine men who either pleaded guilty to or were convicted in 2004 of of charges related to their participation in what came to be known as the 'Virginia Jihad Network'. The charges all centered around the groups' plans to take up arms against nations they considered hostile to Islam, including the United States. Their leader, Ali al-Hamadi was also convicted on various weapons charges. Why bring these conviction into a discussion of the Fort Dix terror plot? Well, it seems that the 'Virginia Jihad Network' honed their skills at waging jihad by practicing tactics and maneuvers on paintball fields and ranges in the Virginia hills. Starting to see a pattern here?

Fast forward back to today. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, it was the paintball activities of the Fort Dix plotters that led to their discovery and arrest. It seems members of the group were fond of videotaping themselves practicing with painball guns, and occasionally real firearms, in the Pocono Mountains. The tapes would often include rants against America and calls for jihad. Luckily, as most criminals do, they made a fatal mistake. They took the tape to a local video store in an effort to get the video of their practice sessions transferred to DVD format. An alert store clerk who watched the tape, alerted the FBI, and a bloodbath was averted.

No doubt, more details will surface about this plot in the days to come, but one thing is already clear: There are many, many more small groups of Islamic jihadists unaffiliated with any known terrorist organization actively practicing for and meticulously planning attacks against Americans right here on American soil. Not even a week ago, 8 Muslim men were arrested in St. Louis, MO on charges related to their alleged plans to acquire automatic weapons and explosives because they were "going to war".

Just like that video store employee, we must remain vigilant. Like Vice President Cheney said about the prospects of another major terrorist attack here in the US: "It's not a matter of if, but when."

Thursday, April 19, 2007

What follows is an Op-Ed piece I submitted to the local anti-gun fish wrapper. I've had others published. I hope this one is too, as its message needs heeding.

The old bromide about there being only two things that are certain in this world - death and taxes, needs modification after the tragic events of this week. The revised list of life's certainties must now read; 'death, taxes and hysterical, anti-gun editorials in the Miami Herald' of which Fred Grimm's shallow, thoughtless piece in Thursday's Metro section is a prime example. He looked at the facts surrounding the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech and, instead of thinking of scenarios which might have prevented or mitigated the carnage wrought by a single lunatic with a gun, he mindlessly regurgitated hackneyed anti-NRA propaganda and offered smug witticisms like 'Thirty-two murders in Blacksburg is no worse than Columbine plus inflation.' Even a cursory examination of the actual facts of this case in place of mindless clichés from the Herald's 'Ban All Guns' talking points page would reveal a fact that even paragons of objectivity like Fred Grimm couldn't deny. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After all the posturing, spinning and grandstanding this week by both pro and anti-2nd Amendment sides, an unavoidable truth remains that needs examination. That truth is illustrated by this series of events: In August of 2006, an escaped inmate killed a hospital guard nearby then fled to the vicinity of Virginia Tech campus where he shot a sheriff's deputy. In the wake of that shooting and student and faculty complaints that they had no means of protecting themselves should another situation like this (a lunatic with a gun) arise, a bill was proffered to the Virginia House of Delegates which would have prohibited universities from banning weapons on campus. It was voted down. That 'enlightened' vote was, of course, lauded by liberal academics like the associate vice president of Virginia Tech, Larry Hincher, who self-righteously proclaimed, when replying to an editorial in the VT school newspaper supporting the lifting of the prohibition:

"The writer [of the editorial, student Bradford Wiles] would have us believe that a university campus, with tens of thousands of young people, is safer with everyone packing heat. Imagine the continual fear of students in that scenario. We've seen that fear here and we don't want to see it again. Guns don't belong in the classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Oh, the irony of those words would be delicious if it wasn't so tragic. 'Sound Policy' does not prevent disturbed individuals bent on killing from doing so. 'Sound Policy' is a 'feel-good' illusion. 'Sound Policy' is a talisman worshipped by the ignorant and naive who believe laws or words actually stop evil people from committing more evil.

The truth is, 'sound policy' did NOT deter Cho Seung-Hui. Nor did all the ominous 'This campus is a GUN FREE ZONE' signs. Nor did all the warnings and admonitions against the bringing of guns on campus by administrators at VT. Nor did the police who didn't even arrive until nearly all the murders had been committed. Rather than sound the clarion call for gun-control, the senseless murders should cause the playing of 'taps'; first, in honor of the 32 brutally murdered students and teachers and second for the death of the idea that government can and will protect us from harm.

That unavoidable truth is, Mr. Grimm: What could have stopped Cho Seung-Hui was an armed student or faculty member putting two rounds in his center of mass. But the administration of VT chose politically-correct signs and words and ‘sound policy’ that only offered the illusion of protection while leaving 25,000 students defenseless against one lunatic with a gun. Where are those brave administrators today? Where is their explanation for how someone could have had the audacity to bring a gun onto campus in the face of those ominous signs and words and ‘sound policy’?

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Last Saturday, a sunny spring afternoon in Orlando, FL, members of the 'United American Committee' and other concerned citizens staged a rally at a busy downtown intersection. The purpose of the rally was to raise awareness about CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations - a front group for radical Islamists funded, in part, by Hamas. The slick, media-savvy, happy face for some very bad people.

Although organizers expected only about a dozen protesters at the intersection, nearly three times that number showed up. Some passersby, right off the street, picked up signs and stood with the other demonstrators. Several drivers and pedestrians stopped to ask what 'CAIR' was and why we were so adamantly opposed to them. They were provided with handouts and as much truth about the trojan horse organization as we could muster between green lights.I say 'we' because I was there taking pictures, holding signs and even trying to hold a rational conversation about radical Islam with a young Muslim man that happened by. Yeah, I said 'trying' because all he could do was speak in regurgitated, anti-American one-liners shoved into his tiny brain, no doubt, courtesy of the local Religion-of-Peace mosque. Anyway, we soon gave up trying to hold a rational conversation with him although he did stick around long enough to hold an American Flag upside down amidst the anti-CAIR protesters. It should be noted here that, despite his desire to provoke us, he was NOT beheaded, nor was he insulted or hurt in any way - which is as much a testament to the tolerance of the protesters as it was to their self-control.

I asked him what would happen to me if I held a Hezbollah flag upside down and shouted down with Hezbollah at a rally in Lebanon. He looked at me, to paraphrase a Don Henley song, "incomprehendingly, like cows at a passing train."

Saturday, March 24, 2007

When the wife and I decided to drive to Washington D.C. last weekend for the Gathering of Eagles, almost immediately the idea of making s small detour on our return trip to Florida came to mind. What could be so important as to get between me and my own bed after a thousand mile drive and a day of counter-protesting in 30 degree temperatures? Aliville. That heretofore mythical Muslims of America compound in northeastern Georgia. I had read blog entries and stories and seen photographs of other MoA encampments (Islamville in Hancock, NY and Madinah Village in Commerce, GA to name but a few), on Gates of Vienna, The Politics of CP, and Doug Hagmann's informative Northeast Intelligence Network website but very little was known about Aliville. So, armed with a camera and a good measure of righteous indignation, I did indeed detour my trip back to the Sunshine State and spent Saturday evening in Hinesville, GA, just a stone's throw from Ft. Stewart - Home of the 3rd Infantry Division (Mech).At dawn, we hit the continental breakfast at the hotel then hit the road; State Rd. 84 towards Jesup, GA.

GA State Road 84 becomes N. 1st St as you enter Jesup from Hinesville. A right turn on W. Cherry, then a jog right onto 169 North, just as the sun was rising, put us on our way.

Unfortunately, the early hour (especially for a Sunday Morning) prevented me from questioning some of the store owners in Jesup about their reclusive neighbors to the northeast. Perhaps that can be the object of a later trip? 169 North, once you get sufficiently out of Jesup becomes a very rural, isolated 2 lane highway with turnoffs onto dirt roads of compacted red clay. Such was the case as my odometer approached 18 miles out of Jesup. After passing Anne Thompson Rd., I switched on my camera to record my 'drive-by' of Aliville. A few seconds later, I took the two photos (vid-caps actually) below. The first is of the entrance to Aliville (looking east) on Oriole Rd, identifiable by a yellow Dead-End sign. The second is of a white, wooden house on the western edge of the compound as seen from 169. Also below, is a map of 169 North and Oriole Rd.

The drive by video shoot having been accomplished, I made a U-turn on 169 and headed south back past Oriole Rd and eventually to I-95 South. It was at this very moment that I decided that I hadn't driven this far just to shoot a few seconds of a dirt road at 30 MPH, so I put down my video camera, grabbed my digital camera and made a hasty left onto Oriole Rd and the entrance to Aliville before I could talk myself out if it.The 'road' was made of the aforementioned compacted red clay and covered by thick growths of trees that obscured the sky as I drove the rental car at idle on the public road so as not to arouse anyone's attention. The first thing I saw was innocuous enough; a black rolling trash bin - the kind you roll to the curb for the truck with the mechanized arm to seize. The picture below is of the western-most entrance to Mecca Circle. Yes it does exist. There are even 2 stop signs at the opposite ends of the circle. The road was not flanked by houses or trailers but there were cleared areas that appeared ready to accommodate some. Notice the red guard shack at the right of the photo and a heavy wooden post to the left. No doubt for a future gate.

No 'Muslims of America' signs or one announcing that you have arrived at 'Holy Aliville', just a guardhouse and a road. Below, however, you can catch a teasing glimpse of what I saw when I peered down the eastern entrance to Mecca Circle. There were a few trailers and several houses, some of them under construction, and a number of cars. This picture was taken after I passed the easternmost entrance to the circle, negotiated a hasty U-Turn on a narrow muddy, clay road and stopped long enough to snap a photo of the road sign and part of a rather nice house. I was sure my maneuvers on the dirt road had gotten the attention of some of the inhabitants as I saw some movement at the far end of the circle. Even though I was on a public street with every right in the world to be there, I decided that I had pressed my luck far enough, stopped to get a clear shot of the road sign, then exited Oriole Rd.

As I suggested earlier, perhaps others, especially those who live closer to Odum, GA than I do, can shed further light on this MoA outpost in the shadow of Ft. Stewart and a Nuclear Power Plant? While I would have liked to have taken more pictures, at least the curtains that have hidden Aliville have now been slightly parted. It's up to others to draw them back completely.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

There are 30,000 suicides in the US each year. Know how many are committed by blowing one’s self to bits? Zero. Yet, the FBI would have us believe that with the myriad of mundane ways to dispatch one’s self to the great beyond, someone went through the trouble of painstakingly researching the explosive TATP (TriAcetone-TriPeroxide), mixing 3 pounds of the extremely unstable compound, stuffing it into a backpack, only to sit down alone on a bench 100 yards from a filled college football stadium to set it off. That someone was Joel Henry Hinrichs III, a former engineering student at the University of Oklahoma. And that story, proffered by the FBI to explain JHH’s act, doesn’t add up.

In a nutshell, the FBI has determined that the bombing at OU on October 1, 2005 was nothing more than an elaborate suicide by a disturbed young man. Certainly not a failed terrorist act. Yet, facts uncovered in the months after the event, at the very least, raise questions that beg for answers. Chief among the questions is Why is the federal search warrant still sealed? If JHH’s suicide was merely that - a simple suicide, what could have been found in his dorm room that would necessitate keeping the warrant sealed? We know the police and FBI found additional quantities of TATP (coincidentally, the same explosive used by jihadists in the London Subway bombings) and bomb making instructions along with detailed notes on the results of experiments he conducted at Red Rock Canyon involving shrapnel-laden anti personnel explosive devices. But what could they have uncovered there or elsewhere that causes them to keep the warrant sealed?

There are many more questions about this event than answers - even now, a year and a half later. Among the more interesting ones are:

What happened to his Pakistani roommate who disappeared shortly after the blast?Whose airline ticket to Algeria was found in Hinrich's apartment?What was he planning to do with the large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer he was prevented from buying only days before his suicide?Were the reports of Hinrichs being seen several times in the parking lot of the Norman Mosque (The same one frequented by Zacharias Moussaoui when he lived in Norman), which was only one block away from the OU campus, accurate?Why does Norman, OK figure so prominently in the activities of known jihadists? For example:Fact: The 'Twentieth Hijacker', Zacharias Moussaoui, attended the Airman Flight School in Norman.Fact: 911 hijackers Muhammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi also attended that school.Fact: Another 911 hijacker, Ziad Jarrah, purchased his ticket on United Flight 93 from a computer terminal at OU in Norman.

For now, these and other questions must remain unanswered. Maybe one day someone involved in the investigatioin will break their silence or, better yet, the federal search warrant will be unsealed. Until that day, there is only speculation and questions. Lots and lots of questions.